NAKUSP — People living in the Arrow Lakes communities near where a double shooting occurred nearly three weeks ago are still coming to grips with what happened.
“For those of us who knew the family, it’s really hard,” a friend of the family of one of the men killed told Arrow Lakes News.
“The reaction is quite mournful,” added Paul Peterson, the local area director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay, a few days after the incident.
The Dec. 18 shooting in Needles, 60 kilometres south of Nakusp, took the lives of two men.
One of them was 83-year-old Ron Volansky, a long-time resident of Needles-Fauquier.
The other has been identified as 58-year-old Roy Bugera.
RCMP were called to the settlement after shots were heard. Officers from an emergency response team entered the homes of the two neighbours and found a dead man in each.
Police have not said if they consider the incident a murder-suicide, but they were not looking for suspects.
Meanwhile, the community is left to deal with the violence that struck so suddenly.
Volansky was a long-time resident of the area and was a “well-respected and well-liked businessman,” said Peterson.
“He was very generous in volunteering himself and his equipment to the community. He was a big part of helping build the local golf course,” he recalled.
An obituary published in the Arrow Lakes News said Volansky was born in Alberta but moved to the area at a young age.
He served in the military in the early 1950s, got married, and moved back to the Arrow Lakes. He ran a successful logging company and, with a partner, built the Fauquier Motel in the 1960s.
He is survived by his wife Phyllis, four sons, and many grand- and great-grandchildren.
“Ron was well-respected in the area and instilled strong family values in his sons and grandchildren,” the family wrote of Volansky.
“He looked forward to having family and friends stop by to visit.”
The family says in recent years Volansky enjoyed woodworking and farming.
Locals contacted by the News say they weren’t familiar with Bugera, except he had come from Alberta to the area several years ago.
The RCMP Southeast District Major Crimes Unit and BC Coroners are continuing their investigations.